SpamCop FAQ

SpamCop Parsing and Reporting Service

If you are a mailserver administrator and you have have spamtraps, you may help feed the SpamCop database, subject to administrator approval.

Traps must consist of email addresses which have never been used for legitimate email. They should not be "recycled" user accounts. They should not be well known email addresses, however fake. Spammers and other users should not be aware what the addresses are and you should try to keep them as confidential as is reasonably possible. SpamCop will also keep them secret. We never reveal trap messages. Web-poison addresses and the like are acceptable sources. Traps must be submitted in real-time (no delay under normal circumstances).

There are three possible methods for submitting traps (in order of preference):

1. MX hosted: SpamCop mail servers receive mail for your domain(s) directly. You update your dns records to designate SpamCop servers as your MX for the domain(s). We will forward back to you accounts you wish to preserve. This is only appropriate if the bulk of the mail to the domain(s) is spam. This method is preferable for several reasons:
   • Takes load off of your MX.
   • Ensures that none of the spam is filtered out at your MX.
   • Gives us more control over the "conversation" with the senders.
   • Ensures that your MX is never accidentally identified as a source of spam.
2. Spam in message body: You configure your system to create a new message with the spam being submitted in the body of it - much like the normal email submission process. Messages can be submitted as plain-text bodies or as MIME attachments (multiple submissions per email).
3. Direct forwarding: You configure your system to simply redirect the trap addresses to SpamCop. This method requires more setup and ongoing maintenance - SpamCop must be configured for your mailserver setup ahead of time. You must notify us if your mailserver configuration ever changes.

To proceed, please give us a brief description of your traps. Please include the following information:

• How many messages per day your traps receive appoximately.
  (We usually won't bother with traps getting less than 2000 spam messages per day)
• Which of the above three forwarding methods you prefer.
• Confirm that the addresses being trapped have never been used.
• Tell us how the traps were originally created.

We will respond with more details on the specifics for your submission method.

Tell us about your traps
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